This week SpaceX’s social media account is on X (formerly Twitter) A record emerged The presentation was held recently at Starbase, owned by a company located in Boca Chica, Texas. SpaceX president Elon Musk, who made the presentation, talked about future test flights of the Starship spacecraft and the company’s plans to establish an autonomous human colony on Mars in the future.

Billionaire says fourth test flight of Starship system planned “In about a month” . This is consistent with a previous statement from SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell last month, who said the next Starship flight was planned for early May and would depend on whether the company could obtain a new launch permit from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. (FAA).

If the company sticks to the given schedule, the fourth test flight will take place less than two months after the previous launch. The main purpose of the test is to ensure that the Starship’s booster block passes. “high heat mode” after entering the atmosphere “controlled decline” As you may remember, during the third flight of the Starship system, the spacecraft disappeared a few minutes after entering the atmosphere.

Musk also said that Starship’s next flight will be related to the development of the Super Heavy launch vehicle’s landing technology. As part of its fourth test launch, SpaceX will attempt to launch a carrier into space virtual tower In the Gulf of Mexico. This will be another step towards achieving a controlled landing of a giant rocket.

Musk noted that if the carrier lands successfully: “virtual tower” During the fourth test flight, SpaceX will next try to make the actual landing of the booster, which will be captured by the “Mekhazil” manipulators – a special tower interceptor for carrier rockets. . “We have an 80% to 90% chance of intercepting a launch vehicle this year with the help of Mehazila manipulators.” , – said the billionaire. He also noted that it would take more time for Starship to be restored before it could be used again, and that the company plans to have at least two successful manned ocean runs before attempting to land it at Starbase. According to Musk, SpaceX will be able to use the Starship ship again in one of its space flights next year.

In parallel, the company is working on expanding production to support a tighter launch schedule in the future. In addition to the new Starship rocket manufacturing facility, the company is building a second launch tower at Starbase and expects to have another launch tower at Cape Canaveral, Florida, by the middle of next year. SpaceX also plans to build six Super Heavy boosters this year. “We should probably expect to do research and development launches here, test new things, build rockets, and then probably expect most of the operational launches to be from the Cape.”— Musk said the following during his speech.

Additionally, SpaceX is working to develop Raptor engines, which are used not only on the Super Heavy booster but also on Starship. According to Musk, the improved Raptor 3 engines will be able to produce up to 280 metric tons of thrust, compared to the 230 tons produced by current generation engines. Ultimately, SpaceX plans to develop the engines to produce more than 300 tons of thrust. Such engines are planned to be used with a more powerful rocket and Starship 2 ship, which will allow the delivery of more than 100 tons of cargo into orbit. And the entire system will be completely reusable. The future Starship 3 will be able to launch more than 200 metric tons of cargo into space and will be reusable. At the same time, the businessman did not specify when the company plans to start operating more advanced Starship ships.

Despite this, the businessman is confident that the launch of Starship 3 will cost less than the original SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket, whose price is about $ 10 million. This will be facilitated by the possibility of using the system more than once. According to the billionaire’s estimates, the cost of launching Starship in the future could be between $2 and $3 million. “These are unimaginable numbers. No one thought this was possible. But we will not need to violate the laws of physics to achieve this goal.”– said Musk.

The businessman did not miss the topic of colonization of Mars. According to him, the flight to the Red Planet requires six refuelings of the orbiting Starship. For this purpose, it is planned to develop space refueling technology using a special fuel apparatus that will be in Earth orbit and where the Starship will dock before the flight to Mars. It was also said that for a ship to successfully land on the surface of the Red Planet, landing pads must be located in low-lying areas to provide enough atmosphere to slow the descent. Additionally, they need to be located close to the equator, as an autonomous human base on Mars must receive sufficient sunlight to produce the required amount of energy.

As for return flights, according to Musk, many people who decide to fly to Mars will not return to Earth. But SpaceX’s long-term goal is to allow people to travel between planets in the future. The company also plans to build significantly more ships from boosters. This is most likely because the ships are being reused for resource extraction on Mars.